56 CEYLON PEAUL OYSTER REPORT. 



culture and experiments could be conducted close to the 1 tanks. We tried Manaar, 

 Aripu, Chilavaturai, Kodramallai, and later on the shores of Portugal and Dutch 

 Bays, but without success. We could find no spot on the shores of the Gulf of 

 Manaar that seemed suitable for the purpose, and none certainly with the natural 

 advantages of Galle. On several occasions we, in the " Lady Havelock," left Captain 

 Donnan and the barques for a coujde of days in order to run lines of dredgings 

 across some of the deeper or more remote parts of the region, especiallv to the north 

 and west. 



Our journal of this cruise is as follows : 



We left Colombo on the afternoon of February 24th, having the barque " Ranga- 

 sameeporawee " in tow. At 7 p.m., when off Negombo, the sea-temperature was 

 79"8 F. and the specific gravity T0235. The following morning, at 7 A.M., off 

 Kalpentyn Island, the temperature was 79 F. and specific gravity 1'023; while at 

 7 p.m., when we anchored at 2f- miles south-south-west of Chilavaturai, the 

 tennperature was 80"8 F. and the specific gravity 1"022 these temperatures being 

 about 2 F. higher than we had found in the same sea three weeks before. 



A tow-net gathering was taken at 5 miles north-north-west of Kodramallai 

 Point. It contained a great quantity of the zoeas of Crabs, some new green 

 Copepods (Pontella dance, n. var., Labidocera, n. sp., and Pontellopsis, n. sp.), 

 Sagitta, Lucifer, larvae of Gastropods and Lamellibranchs. There were also many 

 green filamentous Algae, about 20 other Copepoda (Eucalanus subcrassus, Rhin- 

 calanus cornutus, llyopsyllus affinis, and Centropages, n. sp.) and many diatoms. 

 One large bluish-green Copepod (the new Pontellopsis) had a plate-like radially 

 marked mass of spermatophores on its hinder end (genital segment) which was so 

 conspicuous as to be visible to the naked eye as a yellowish patch. 



We went ashore at Chilavaturai, running in as far as we could in the " Serendib " 

 and then in the ship's boat. Where the "Serendib" stopped, in 13 feet of water, 

 the screw stirred up quantities of delicate red Algae (Hypnea muscifonnis and Poly- 

 siphonia sp.) and very fine filamentous green stuff (Cladophora sp.) such as we also 

 found growing in some parts of the Cheval Paar, and to which the minute oyster 

 spat commonly becomes attached. These Algae apparently grow on a coarse sandy 

 bottom in various parts of the district. 



Chilavaturai is famous in the annals of the Ceylon pearl fisheries as having always 

 been the site of the fisheries camp during British times, except in the case of the 

 small fishery of 1832 and the three fisheries of the Muttuvaratu Paar in 1889, 1890 

 and 1891. Sir W. Twynam and Captain Donnan have shown however that there 

 are reasons why Marichchukaddi, about 10 miles further down the coast, would he, in 

 some respects, a better site for the camp in future fisheries of these northern paars. 



Chilavaturai was one of the spots to which attention had been directed as a 

 possible locality for the marine laboratory, and we consequently examined some 

 empty rooms which adjoin the Rest-house ; but found them inconvenient and in poor 



